


Mortal Bound

by CupCakezys



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Era, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23785390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CupCakezys/pseuds/CupCakezys
Summary: Magic had a choice to make, but when the very world hung in the balance, was it ever even a choice at all?
Comments: 6
Kudos: 72





	Mortal Bound

Magic watched as the world around it burned. It watched, and though it could not produce tears, it wept, for with the world, Magic’s people, too, burnt.

Never before had Magic seen its people suffer so much simply because they had wanted to learn its ways. Worse, it had never imagined such suffering would come about because of something it had done. After all, it had only been doing its job.

It had only been keeping the balance.

She had called to it, and Magic had answered, as it always did. She was a favourite, granted more of Magic than usual, and Magic loved to see the things she used it for. Not all of them were good, it could admit to that, but she understood the need for balance, and she never pushed too far into the darkness, no matter what She asked of her. Magic commended her for it. Few ever managed to be so restrained.

The fault did not lie with her.

The blame lay with the mortal king, Magic knew, the one that knew nothing of balance, or if he did, he thought himself above it. He was foolish, and arrogant, as all human kings were want to be. No one was above the balance of the world – not the humans and their kings, not the animals of the sky, sea or forest, not even the gods, old and new. Not even Magic was above it – it was simply in charge of keeping it, as it had been since it blinked into awareness in a bright crystal cave.

When the time came, and the balance had to be kept, Magic did as it had always done. The spell had been a simple one, cast in secret and only known to three – two of Magic’s people, its favourite and a healer, along with their king. The queen hadn’t been told, for they had wanted her to believe herself capable of conceiving on her own – a nice thought, Magic had agreed, for the queen had felt useless enough after she had learned that she was barren.

But perhaps it would have been better if she had been told. Perhaps she would have listened and believed, where the king had not. Perhaps then all of this could have been avoided – or at least, Magic’s people could have been saved. The queen’s death was certain, and had been from the moment the spell had been cast.

For the balance had to be kept, and in order to create a life, a life had to be taken away.

Her labour was a long one, and Magic had watched patiently as the hours passed by. It stayed close to her side, watching the child come closer, feeling the magic that had created him rising to the surface. Felt the world slipping out of balance, felt it begging to be corrected.

Patience, Magic had thought, patience.

Long minutes passed, and then the child slipped free of his mother, into the healers’ hands, and everyone in the room – the king, his queen, Magic’s favourite, and two other humans, girls in plain cloth – breathed a sigh of relief.

But the child did not cry, did not even stir in the physician’s hands. Their relief gave way to panic, and the world panicked with them. _Balance_.

Magic felt everything happen at once – the child breathed his first breath as his mother breathed her last, the spell that had created him fizzled away, and the earth sighed in relief as the balance was restored. Magic thought it heard some of the gods muttering – She was particularly loud, and there was something like resignation in her tone, but Magic had never paid much attention to what the gods were saying.

Magic left the birth to the sound of wailing – the humans had realised their queen lay still, unmoving, and all were weeping for her. Magic paid little attention – it may not have wanted to kill the queen, but the king had demanded a child, and its favourite had cast the spell. It had had no choice, though that didn’t stop it reaching out and helping the queen’s spirit find her way to where she was supposed to go. She seemed confused, and scared, and Magic did it’s best to calm her before she moved beyond its reach.

It hadn’t thought anything else of that night.

Not until the first screams started.

It could feel the way its people were calling to it, using it to try and escape the fire, and the king’s men. The king who, Magic could tell, was still as arrogant and foolish as before. He was steadily destroying the balance – little by little, person by person, but Magic could feel it. Its people were dying, and Magic had never felt such suffering. The world had not either, for Magic could hear it calling out, begging for this wrong to be stopped.

Magic tried.

It lent more of itself to its people, went to those it had favoured and nudged them, tried to convince them to end this madness. None of it worked. Through it all, the foolish king stood, and Magic’s people burned.

_Destiny won’t let him die_.

Magic turned, and saw Her beside it. It was Her elderly face that greeted it, Her green eyes overflowing with wisdom. Wisdom, and prophecy.

Magic sometimes wondered why it had been created. Before it had woken, there had already been a type of magic in the world – Hers. The magic of prophecy, and of the gods – when they would lend their powers to mortals. It wasn’t lent to them the same way Magic lent parts of itself to its people, for Magic gave those parts away freely, and for as long as the human lived. The gods were careful with their power – mortals were granted its use temporarily, and only after great sacrifice.

Perhaps it was to put a stop to all of the sacrifice, or perhaps it was simple chance. Magic didn’t know, and it doubted it would ever find out.

_Then the world is doomed._ Magic said, though it had no voice.

She heard it anyway. _Perhaps. But that is not what Destiny has planned._

_A prophecy?_ Magic asked, for there was no other way She would know. Destiny spoke to no one.

She hummed, and Her face changed to that of the Mother. _The prophecy of the Once and Future King._

_I’ve heard it._ Magic said, for it had been impossible not to. Her people had been whispering about it for centuries now, so much so that Magic’s own people had started to share it.

_That child is he_. She said, and Magic didn’t have to ask who She meant.

_The world cannot be left out of balance like this._ It said instead. _Not even for the few years it will take him to grow._

She chuckled, and the Crone shook her head as she reappeared. _It will. I have Seen it, and I know it will. The balance will always last, so long as you do._

Magic didn’t respond to that. Perhaps She knew it wasn’t going to speak again, for she left without another word. Magic hardly noticed Her go, though it had to wonder what She had seen to make her so calm. After all, She took great pride in Her people, and it was their Isle of the Blessed that had most recently been destroyed, along with most of Her people. There were only a few left, scattered now. Magic was glad to feel its favourite among them – perhaps she could help restore the balance.

A babe’s wall cut through Magic like a knife, and before it really knew what it was doing, it found itself heading towards the castle. It bypassed the fires burning in the courtyard, not wanting to watch as more of its people died, and instead wound its way through the halls, searching for the child’s call.

When Magic found him, he was crying softly in his crib, too softly for the nursemaid asleep in her chair to hear. Too softly for Magic to have heard, high above he castle as it had been, but Magic knew that distance did not matter, not between it and this child. They were linked, irreversibly, and not only because Magic had been the one to create him. No, they were linked for a much simpler reason.

Because as Magic watched, it realised that this was its King. Its one true King, unlike any other mortal that had ever been or ever would be. It reached out tentatively, and he reached back, his cries disappearing as Magic softly brushed against his cheek. There was no way the babe could see it, but perhaps some part of him felt it near, for he giggled and smiled up at it, as best a two week old child could. Magic would have smiled with him, if it could.

Instead it pulled away slowly, so slowly its King hardly seemed to notice, drifting off to sleep easily before Magic had even managed to get halfway across the room.

Magic knew, as it left the castle and the screams behind, that it needed to do everything in its power to protect its King. For it knew the King would bring balance back to the world, if only he were given the chance. Magic could give him that chance, but not like this. No, like this it was far too useless, reliant as it was on its people to cast the spells to protect, and with the babe’s father lost in his madness there was a chance its people might not even want to protect him.

Magic could not allow that to happen.

_You understand, now?_ She asked, joining Magic once again.

_Of course._ It answered distractedly. It was looking for the perfect one.

_This is not the only way_. She said, and Magic knew from her tone alone that the Mother was worried.

_It is the only sure way_. It answered. _Besides, you have all done it before._

_We are gods._ She answered, frowning.

_It doesn’t matter._ Magic said, feeling a thrill of victory go through it as it found what it was looking for. _This is what I have to do. To protect my King, and the balance, and this world._

The Maiden sucked in a breath as she caught onto what Magic was planning. _You mean to merge with this child?_

_I do._ Magic said, for it knew it was what it had to do. The very earth was telling it to hurry, to become one with the child growing in the peasant woman’s womb.

_No one’s ever merged with a child before_! The Maiden protested, and Magic knew that, did She think it didn’t? _You would not simply be giving yourself a human body, but merge with an existing one. You could disappear forever Magic!_

Magic looked at Her, and wondered how She hadn’t seen this. _I know._

The Maiden looked torn, but then the Crone was there, and She nodded and gently pushed Magic towards the earth. _Hurry now. The world needs you._

_Take care of our people._ Magic asked, for it knew that its people were Her’s as well, no matter how they often liked to make a distinction between the two. It would not be able to take care of them for many years, not until its human self had grown, and it dreaded to think about what could happen to them before then. _They will need you, now more than ever._

She nodded, the Maiden, Mother and Crone all speaking at once. _I will._

The promise calmed Magic, and it allowed itself to fall, down down down, until it found itself before the peasant woman, in a tiny room too dark for the human eye to see in. But Magic wasn’t human, not yet, and it watched as a man – on of its people, a Dragonlord – shuffled his way around the room, trying not to wake the woman. He cast one glance at her, and Magic saw the guilt, and the love, and the longing, but most of all it could see the fear. Then the man slipped out the door, and Magic turned its attention back to the woman.

It sunk closer to her, embracing her gently, and though she wasn’t one of its people, perhaps she sensed it, for she huffed in her sleep and leaned into it. Magic sighed and all at once it fell, down into the woman’s womb, where a child was just beginning to form. A boy, Magic knew, and a boy that was going to help it change the world.

And just before it merged with this boy, it realised it would never be Magic again. No, it and this boy were going to be something entirely new, something not quite human and not quite Magic.

Someone whose name was going to be _Merlin_ , and someone whose destiny it was to be _Emrys_.


End file.
